Elections Have Consequences
by GrandpaJoeProductionFanfiction
Summary: One-shot. In this Public Service Announcement about the importance of voting, Tommy and some of his friends discuss a hypothetical world where elections are still held. Will everyone be convinced that elections are something everybody needs to be engaged in?


It was the night of Monday, November 6, 2017, and four friends sat outside around a bonfire in the middle of a forest. The moon was nearly full, currently at the waning gibbous phase, and the local temperature had dropped down to the low fifties. Even though it looked as if the four friends were on a camping trip, they were not outdoors for recreational reasons; they were there for political reasons. Over nine months before the night the friends gathered around a fire for warmth, the failed businessman Ronald Thump was inaugurated into office being declared the winner of the presidential election two months before. At first, many people chose to believe that Thump would govern, in the words of comedian Bill Maher, "within the normal parameters of Republican awful." In other words, his presidency would not be great, however, it would also not be the end of the world. That wishful thinking quickly disintegrated less than twenty-four hours after Thump became president when his Defense Secretary, Michael Kabadaian, lead a coup that purged the government of the Legislative and Judicial branches of government along with the Vice President and his fellow secretaries from other departments, the State and Treasury departments to be exact.

With every potential source of opposition eliminated, Kabadaian proceeded to secure his grip on power as Thump watched from the sidelines as he didn't really care about running the country. In order to keep control over the population, Kabadaian created the Deplorable Corps from the masses of Thump's supporters who came out and aided the Defense Secretary in his purge. These Deplorables started out as national policemen who took care of local skirmishes, but as many people in the military began to defect, they morphed into a paramilitary organization that began to take on even bigger tasks such as infiltrating the private lives of people. In response to the violations of the truths held to be self-evident, bands of disgruntled citizens gathered together all over the country in order to fight back. They called themselves the Resistance; but even though they were motivated, they could never take down the new state, the United States of Thump. Over the last few months, Resistance agents had stolen various pieces of military equipment from the UST; however, it was still not enough to make a difference.

The Los Angeles branch of the Resistance created a base in the middle of the Angeles National Forest, just north of the city, and it was there where the four friends first friends. The most significant one of the four friends was a brown haired man named Jeffrey Petersen. He was the chairman of the local Resistance branch, a position he gained with the help of his experience as the city attorney of the town of Yucaipa, California. Another Yucaipa native present at the meeting was a dark haired man named Tommy Pickles, a commander in the Resistance who never went anywhere without his camcorder. Over the previous months, Tommy had captured weeks-worth of footage from the inhospitable conditions the UST had created that he hoped to turn into a series of documentaries once the UST had been dealt with. The third member of the group was Zachary Wehrenberg, a man with fair skin and blond hair. Zack was a computer scientist originally from Massachusetts. He moved to LA after college for work, but he found himself getting involved with the Resistance after nearly two years in California. The final member of the group was Gábor Csóka, a Hungarian immigrant with dark hair that stretched down to his ears and a goatee around his mouth. Gábor came to the United States to study animation at the California Institute of the Arts, and during that time and afterwards, he had made friends who all got together and went on several missions for the Resistance. Their travels took them across the country where they stole a variety of equipment for the Resistance and also met a variety of people who were angry at the UST.

As the four of them huddled around the fire for warmth from the November breeze, Jeffrey attempted to break the ice by starting up a conversation, asking, "So, has anyone heard any news from the northeast?"

"Nothing new, Guglielmi is still going after everyone who speaks ill of Thump," Gábor replied in his Hungarian accent, alluding to Randy Guglielmi, the former mayor of New York City who defended Thump at every turn possible.

Another moment of silence loomed over the four friends for the next few seconds until Tommy jumped in and tried to jumpstart the conversation Jeffrey began, saying, "Do you guys ever wonder what things would've been like if Kabadaian had never gotten through with his purge? None of this would be happening. Things would not be this bad."

While Jeffrey and Gábor nodded in agreement, Zack sat back with his arms crossed around his waist, replying, "I'm not so sure of that."

With the other three people staring at him, unconvinced and confused, Zack felt as if he had to defend his belief, responding, "I mean, sure, there wouldn't be Deplorables roaming the streets, but it's not like that is the standard of terrible. I am quite confident that in a world where Kabadaian's purge did not occur in, the Republicans would have allowed Thump, or a version of Thump, to do as he wished."

"I guess that would be worse, Kabadaian is the one who holds the real power, but if Thump was in control, imagine the trouble he'd get into," said Jeffrey.

"It's not much of a thought experiment; he'd most likely end up under investigation. His lawyer and close associates would probably flip on him. He'd probably end up getting sued by a porn star, or something," Tommy retorted.

"And there would have been no way to stop it," Gábor interjected.

Although, before another awkward silence could cast itself over the group, Zack immediately jumped back into the conversation, replying, "Not exactly."

"What do you mean? You said the Republicans would turn a blind eye, and they controlled every branch of the government. There would be no check on Thump," Gábor said, confused about Zack's previous statements on the issue.

Aware of what Gábor was getting at, Zack responded, "That's true, for the first two years, but not for the two years afterwards if Congress flipped."

"Did you know that in a world where the UST did not take over, the US Midterm elections would take place on November 6, 2018, exactly one year from today," Zack added.

Unconvinced by Zack's argument, Tommy leaned back on the log he sat on, and replied, "But why would we vote again? We did it in 2016, and look where we ended up."

Frustrated by Tommy's statements, the same statements made by a variety of people he had met over the year, Zack responded with the same speech he always told these people, saying, "I know, but you can't write off an entire political process because you were upset with what happened the last time. Listen, we're all here because we're upset with what's going on. Well, a lot of other people are also upset, and if we all came out and voted, we could see some real change."

"Really, where?" Gábor asked, curious about the legitimate intricacies of the political system of his new homeland.

After contemplating a response over the next few seconds, Zack came up with an answer to his friend's question, replying, "Well, there are plenty of seats in the House of Representatives that could be flipped; districts that voted Democratic in the Presidential election but voted for a Republican congressperson like Florida's 27th in Miami, California's 21st up in the Central Valley, or Washington's 8th outside of Seattle. Also, if Congress was still around, there would have surely have been some retirements, and that would have made it easier to flip those seats. Imagine it, districts like Kansas' 2nd on the eastern side of the state, New Jersey's 2nd in the southern portion of the state, and Michigan's 11th just north of Detroit, if the incumbent decided not to run, they could be flipped."

Even though Zack gave such an elaborate response, Tommy simplified his message, and asked, "So, that's it, get the people in those flippable districts to vote and all of the problems would have been solved?"

"No, no, no, not just the House, there's also the Senate," Zack retorted, clearing up what Tommy didn't seem to understand.

"Okay, what about it?" Tommy asked in response.

Since the information about the Senate was much easier to remember, it wasn't long until Zack spoke up, saying, "Look, the Senate is a little more difficult, Democrats would need to defend ten seats in states that Thump won, and that's not going to be a picnic. They would also need to flip three Senate seats."

"Three seats?" Gábor astonished asked.

"Yeah, although, maybe that number would go down to two if they flipped a seat in some special election. Maybe the Republicans nominate a Pedophile and the voters reject him by voting for the Democrat...or something," Zack replied, giving one of the most improbable electoral match-ups he could come up with right on the spot.

The group of friends went quiet, unsure how to respond to such a hypothetical, until Jeffrey broke the silence, saying, "That got dark really fast."

"It's a possibility, but, look, that's not the point. There are other seats that could be flipped to give the Democrats the advantage in the Senate. Nevada voted for the Democrats in 2016 and Arizona was a state that barely went for the Republicans. Tennessee had a Democratic governor a few years back; imagine if he ran for the Senate. Not to mention Texas, imagine a young, charismatic man challenging Lyin' Ed," Zack replied, attempting to bring the conversation back to the control of the Senate.

"Okay, so there are plenty of flippable seats to change the balance of power. But, how would people vote? I mean, it's probably very difficult," Gábor responded, still unconvinced of Zack's thesis.

Gábor's question was incredibly interesting, and Zack answered it honestly, saying, "In many states it is, States like Mississippi and Indiana require you to show up with a government issues photo ID to vote. Not to mention states like Arkansas and New Hampshire still require you to vote with some sort of identification."

"Man, that sounds confusing," Tommy replied.

Zack agreed with Tommy statement, and again he decided to speak the harsh truth, saying, "It is, each state is different and every person would have to look into the specific situation of their state, but the only all of that can change is if new people are voted in. And that's not even talking about registration."

"Registration?" Gábor asked, having lost track of the different hurdles you needed to maneuver through in order to vote.

"Yeah, the registration dates differ for each state and the methods of voting in each state," Zack said, responding to Gábor's question.

"What do you mean, how much of difference is it?" Tommy asked as he was unaware of the discrepancies between states when it came to voting.

Unlike the previous times this list of information was extremely long, however, Zack recollected everything, took a deep breath, and said, "Well, all forms of registration in Georgia and Tennessee and all postmarked voter registration forms and online registrations in Washington State have to be received by October 8th. All forms of registration in Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and New Mexico and all online registrations in Illinois have to be received by October 9th. All forms of registration in Missouri have to be received by October 10th. All forms of registration in New York, all in person and postmarked voter registration forms in North Carolina and Oklahoma and all online registrations have to be received by October 12th. All forms of registration in Delaware have to be received by October 13th. All forms of registration in Virginia have to be received by October 15th. All forms of registration in Kansas, Maryland, Oregon, and West Virginia, all postmarked voter registration forms and online registrations in Minnesota, all in person and online registrations in Nevada, all in person and postmarked voter registration forms in New Jersey, all online registrations in Washington DC, and all postmarked voter registration forms in Maine have to be received by October 16th. All forms of registration in Massachusetts and all postmarked voter registration forms and online registrations in Wisconsin have to be received by October 17th. All postmarked voter registration forms and online registrations in Nebraska have to be received by October 19th All forms of registration in Alabama and California, all postmarked voter registration forms in Iowa, all in person and postmarked voter registration forms in South Dakota, and all postmarked voter registration forms in Wyoming have to be received by October 22nd. All in person registrations in Nebraska have to be received by 6 PM local time on October 26th. All in person and online registrations in Iowa and all postmarked voter registration forms in New Hampshire have to be received by October 27th. All in person registrations in Washington State have to be received by October 29th. All forms of registration in Connecticut and all online registrations in Utah have to be received by October 30th. You can even register to vote in person up to Election Day, November 6th, in Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Washington DC, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. You could also register to vote from either three sources on Election Day in Vermont. And in North Dakota, all you would need to vote is to show up with a photo ID and a document proving you live in the state."

The rest of the friends present were all shocked to have witnessed Zack recite such an elaborate list, to which Tommy responded "Wow, that's a lot of information you know there."

"Again, computer scientist, you've got to have a great mind," Zack retorted, tapping the right side of his head with his right index figure.

By this point, all three other friends seemed to be on board with Zack's idea, to which Gábor replied, "Okay, so I think I get it now. If people have the choice to vote for the control of the legislature, you would tell them to vote for the Democrats every time."

Those were not the words Zack wanted to hear from his friend, and he let him know, responding, "No, that's not the point, I can't tell people how to vote, nobody can. If anyone tries to control how people vote then the whole process would be for nothing. That said, I do have one piece of advice for everyone; if you have to choose between the Democrat and a candidate from a party that has enacted laws that make it harder to vote as I mentioned before and a party that is headed by a man who separated young children from their families in order to lock them up in cages, then maybe you need to reconsider voting for that party."

Zack's final statement surely sent chills down the spines of the three other friends. The realization that a once respected political party would allow Thump to get away with everything he did was a sobering thought that ended the fantasy of such a world being a safe haven. They all agreed that if the Republicans still had control of congress then Thump would've been unstoppable. If they had their way, Thump would probably end up nominating an alcoholic sex offender with a gambling addiction to the Supreme Court and the Republican-controlled Senate would confirm him on a whim. However, if congress was still intact, that would mean that elections would still be held. And when elections can be held, then change could be made on all levels, from the most local races, to the control of various state governments, and all the way up to the balance of power of the Congress.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Please visit vote. org for more information and if you live in one of the 38 states or in the District of Columbia with online voter registration, please visit your state's Secretary of State's website in order to register.


End file.
